Ephesians overview – 3:14-19, Filled by God due to grace (Rom 5:12-21), part 3.

Sunday August 16, 2020

 

Paul prays in EPH 3:19 that we would know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, so that we may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

 

EPH 3:16-19

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; 17 so that [the] Christ may dwell [at home] in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fulness of God.

 

EPH 1:23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.   

 

 

He tells us in EPH 4:13 that we are to attain to the unity of the faith, and the full knowledge of the Son of God, to the measure of the stature that belongs to the fullness of Christ.

 

EPH 4:13

until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge [epignosis = full knowledge] of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.

 

By doing so, we grow up in all aspects into Christ, all being built up in Christ’s love.

 

EPH 4:14-16

As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves, and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

 

In Eph 5 Paul commands us to be filled with the Spirit. In context he follows a similar pattern to Eph 3 (comprehension and knowledge) and Eph 4 (faith and full knowledge of Christ).

 

EPH 5:15-21

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, 16 making the most of your time, because the days are [surrounded by] evil. 17 So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in [the spirit of] psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; 20 always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; 21 and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

 

To be filled with God, attributed to the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Paul’s epistle we call Ephesians, has to be the ultimate life for a human being, and in fact it is. It is a life of comprehending and understanding the love of Christ, the full knowledge of Christ, and the will of the Father, and by alertness and faith, executing that will while walking in that love and knowledge. When we became born-again, we were designed to live this way. Such life, Christ’s life, is normal for us.

 

And how did we come to possess the life of Christ’s love and knowledge under the will of the Father? The grace of God.

 

Grace means divine favor. It is a free gift. But the divine favor of a free gift does not mean that every born-again believer will automatically live the Christian life. Divine favor means that it is yours as a gift. If a believer chooses his self-life, the life where he is the center rather than Christ, then he may. He will be disciplined by God, convicted by God, led by God in various ways, but like any life of relationship, and this life is as Christ’s, meaning that it is a walk with God, it must be chosen.

 

We are emphasizing, before we move on in Ephesians, that chosen or not, the life given to every believer is a gift.

 

ROM 5:12-21 is one of the most important passages in all of scripture. It is vital that it is understood in its plainness.

 

Vv. 13-17 are a long parenthesis.

 

ROM 5:12

Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned [when Adam sinned]—

 

This is the problem in the individual, the home, the city, the state, the nation, and the world.

 

Paul writes his parenthesis and then repeats vs. 12 (the protasis) in a slightly different way so that he can present the apodosis.

 

ROM 5:18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.